内容摘要：Juan Carlos Salazar, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) speak

Juan Carlos Salazar, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) speaks during the 2022 ICAO Legal Seminar in Seoul, April 12. Yonhap

The head of the United Nation's civil aviation agency urged North Korea on Tuesday to make prior notifications on its missile launches, saying Pyongyang's unannounced missile tests would pose a risk to international civil aviation.

Tensions have recently escalated on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea fired its first intercontinental ballistic missile last month since November 2017.

The latest launch ended North Korea's self-imposed moratorium on long-range missile testing in 2018 and came after a series of shorter-missile launches in recent months.

"Every time that North Korea is conducting these unexpected tests, one of the first concerns we have is precisely the risk that is posed to international civil aviation," Juan Carlos Salazar, secretary general of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in Seoul.

"ICAO member states, including North Korea, are expected to notify all other member states and adjacent countries of any activity or incident arising from their territory, which may pose a risk to nearby civil aviation and operations," he said.

The agency sent "a formal letter to North Korea expressing our concerns whenever the situation arises," though ICAO does not have regular communication channels with the North amid restrictions in engagement with the communist country over international sanctions, the secretary general said.

North Korea is one of the agency's 193 member nations.

As for North Korea's proposal in 2018 of opening new flight routes between its capital city of Pyongyang and South Korea's western city of Incheon, the chief expressed support, though he said it is more of a bilateral matter between the two Koreas.

"The preamble of the Chicago Convention says that the international air connectivity fosters peace and exchange among member nations," Salazar said.

"If such an agreement is made between South Korea and North Korea, of course, ICAO will welcome that. And of course, ICAO will be ready to support any decision that the two states made in that regard," he added.

Speaking of Russia's recent ban on airlines from dozens of European and other nations, the ICAO chief said his agency has been "communicating" with nations concerned to remind them of their commitments to making "safe and secure international air travel over that territory or between those territories."

Russia prohibited airlines from 36 nations, including 27 European Union nations, in response to sanctions imposed on the country for its invasion of Ukraine.

Salazar is in Seoul to attend the 2022 Legal Seminar that kicked off in Seoul on the day for a three-day run, where hundreds of participants discuss ways of ensuring the safe recovery of the global aviation sector in the post-pandemic era.

"Since I was appointed secretary general of the ICAO last year, I have made my key priority to support the sector's pandemic recovery and reconnect the world while keeping vigilant on our long-term strategies to support the development of safe, secure and sustainable air transport," he said. (Yonhap)